Title

Humorousness and job success among adults with schizophrenia

Date of Completion

January 1998

Keywords

Education, Guidance and Counseling|Psychology, Clinical|Psychology, Industrial

Degree

Ph.D.

Abstract

This study investigated the extent to which having "a sense of humor" may have mediated the vocational outcomes of individuals diagnosed as having schizophrenia who had received specialized vocational services known as Supported Employment in the year preceding the study. Supported employment programs provide work preparation, job placement and training, counseling, employer assistance, and related services to help their clients to find and retain competitive employment. In this study, 57 volunteer subjects, diagnosed as having schizophrenia and drawn from eleven supported employment programs around the state of Connecticut completed two measures designed to gauge sense of humor.^ Subject variables including job retention rates, gender, age, level of interpersonal demand of job, hospitalization history, and prior work history were considered in this study. Data analysis of ratings of subjects' humor levels and subjects variables revealed a correlation between the two measures employed in the study, but only one significant relationship was found between these dependent variables and the study's independent variables. Possible explanations for these findings are offered, as well as insights gained by the author in the course of conducting the study which may be of interest and use to future researchers exploring relationships between "sense of humor" and social adaptation in various environments. ^

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